good morning everyone. so glad you're with us. i'm poppy harlow. >> i'm john berman. thanks for joining us. this is exactly how bill belichick always planned it, even though it looked all but impossible about 10:00 last night. talking about the debut of our new cnn "newsroom" right now. also, the patriots came from 25 points back to win the super bowl.

>> tossed to white. he's in! patriots win the super bowl! brady has his fifth! what a comeback! >> so all we need now is five more rings and we will be just like tom brady, also a perfect smile. >> can we take a moment? this is for you. >> you got me a hat? >> i got you a super bowl hat. i was very worried about 10:00 last night. >> i got your daughter a patriots shirt. this is going to turn out okay, this show. >> i was seriously worried and i may have been e-mailing management saying i'm worried berman is not going to smile on the new show. >> you don't have to worry about that. also this morning, a new showdown over president trump's travel ban. >> the fate of that ban lies in the hands of the ninth circuit court of appeals as it weighs whether or not to keep the

suspension in place. the justice department facing a 6:00 p.m. deadline to defend the ban in a battle you can bet will almost certainly go to the supreme court. all this happens as president trump gets ready to make his first major address to u.s. troops since his inauguration. >> we are covering this from each and every angle this morning. let's go first to cnn's dan simon in san francisco outside the ninth circuit court where this is all taking place. >> the ninth circuit needs to decide whether or not to keep this suspension in place. the next step is for all sides to file their legal briefs. we know washington and minnesota has already filed theirs. the federal government has until 6:00 p.m. to make its position known. you have other folks weighing in including technology companies. they filed an amicus brief with the court basically saying this immigration order is unjust and that it will harm business.

you also have really what's an unprecedented move with former federal government officials ranging from john kerry to madeline albright to susan rice saying they're not aware of a specific threat anywhere in the world that would justify this ban. we're talking about a three-judge panel that will hear this case. they can have a hearing in person or it can be by video or by phone or they can simply rule that most legal observers seem to think no matter what happens here at the ninth circuit, that this is headed to the supreme court. john and poppy? >> no question about it. thank you very much. up bright and early in san francisco. the trump administration is no question expected to carry out a full-court press to defend the ban. jessica schneider is in tampa where the president is headed later this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, poppy. the full-court press was front and center on president trump's twitter feed all weekend long. at times defiant, arguing his executive order was well within the bounds of the constitution.

at other times, he derided the federal court judge in seattle that put the halt to donald trump's executive order. president trump blasted the federal judge, james robart, calling him a, quote, so-called judge and blasting the order as ridiculous. he even went a step farther saying if anything bad were to happen in this country, that judge would be to blame. democrats are pushing back. one person defending the president for his tweets and executive order, vice president mike pence. >> we are very confident the president is operating within his authority as president, both under the constitution and under clear statutory law. that's what's so frustrating about the decision. the president of the united states has every right to criticize the other two branches of government. >> reporter: so the administration, of course, pushing for the fact that they believe this executive order was completely legal, but several notable names are also speaking

out. in fact, several notable names signed an order in the ninth circuit saying this executive order was both harmful and unnecessary. the people that signed that included secretaries or former secretaries of state john kerry as well as madeleine albright as well as a list of others who worked in president obama's administration. a lot of people speaking out about it. but the administration steadfast. poppy? >> jessica, thank you very much. let's discuss a little more. joining us, gloria browne-marshall, constitutional law professor at john j. college of criminal justice. errol louis political anchor of spectrum news and susan paige from "usa today." >> excuse me of losing my voice after the patriots win. if something happens, blame him in the court system, people pouring in bad. this harkens back to what people think were the low points of the

campaign, where trump took on judge curiel. is it different now that he's president? >> it's very different. now he speaks with the authority of the presidency and the executive branch. this is the executive branch attacking the judicial branch, doing it in an unseemly way. but also causing confusion about how our system works. the judges are there to interpret the law, apply the law. this is somebody who is not a so-called junl, as he was dismissively referred to, his confirmation was like 99-0. he's duly confirmed, lifetime tenure, has probably handled hundreds, if not thousands of cases. it sidetracks the conversation. on the merits, the president is going to have to go in and make his case in court. he's not going to win this on twitter. >> let's talk about the argument and the merits. this is really just an injunction whether or not it will be lifted. gloria, to you, this will no doubt go to the supreme court. i doubt we'll see the president

criticizing the supreme court justices on this one. they have to make a decision here, and the argument from the justice department that i find most fascinating is they say the courts do not have access to the classified information that the president has making this decision. how strong after an argument is that? >> it's pretty strong because it's a balance of power, a balance of horribles. what is the horrible thing that's going to happen to those people who are not allowed in, who have visas, have sbn interpreters, their lives are in danger. they've helped our troops and can't get back here to safety, as opposed to what are the dangers to the country if we allow these people in and someone does something to harm american citizens. the states can argue there's a harm to the state by not allowing these people in, commercial harm. >> irreparable harm is the argument they've made. >> my major concern is, there is information the president

receives in his briefings. the argument he made for a ban on muslims was made during the campaign. candidate trump made the arguments, president trump is following through. we're to believe this is based on information he received while he was president. >> susan page, it's interesting, the president has put republicans in a bind. ben sasse says they're judges, not so-called judges. mitch mcconnell said i think it's best not to single out judges for criticism. the president is going to need republican support going forward. >> that's for sure. mitch mcconnell has been pretty supportive of president trump on a variety of other fronts. this immigration ban has been so far the defining decision by president trump. he's done other things on the affordable care act, building a wall with mexico, bru this is a decision that's galvanized the opposition, forced congressional democrats to take ard haer line and unnerved some of the

republicans who want to support him on issues including tightening national security. you only have to look at the super bowl ads last night to see how a lot of corporations think americans feel about things like bringing immigrants and welcoming them to this country. >> errol, part of the law the courts have to weigh, the discretion given to president on immigration, statute 1182, but also our law and the establishment clause that says you cannot discriminate on who is coming into this country because of their nation of origin, et cetera. when the president used as a candidate the words ban and muslim ban at one time, does that have any impact on the court's decision here when they decide intent? >> it certainly tips their hand and makes it harder for them to make their case on more neutral grounds. they've been pretty transparent, recklessly so, openly saying a complete shutdown of muslim

immigration. rudy giuliani blurted out on television the other day he was told to, quote, find a legal way to implement a muslim ban. having tipped their hand they had an unconstitutional motive and end goal -- >> i wonder, can the courts consider that in their decision? the boston judge said exactly that, you're expecting me, gloria, to consider something that is not part of this case. >> the boston judge -- that's the judge who upheld this prohibition of the muslims coming in or people coming in from these seven muslim countries, majority muslim countries, said, yes, immigration is a rt great part of our nation's history, however, we have to look at what the harm could be from the immigrants entering. the president has the power to protect american sints even though on its face it looks like this is a ban against muslims. i want to say something quickly to errol's point, that is, you can't have something new trulaln

its face, we've seen it involving certain religions people don't like, you can't on its face have neutral and yet it's actually intended to harm a particular group of people. that is unconstitutional. >> susan paige, this morning, president trump is watching tv and tweeting about it which i don't think is news. we've been talking about polls. let me show you where his approval rating is. 44% ap prochr move, 53% disapprove. that's the latest poll we have. what does donald trump say about that? he says any negative polls are fake news, he says. he then goes on to say i call my own shots based on an accumulation of data and everyone i know it. some fake news media in order to marginalize lies. the president saying that public opinion, if it's against me, it just isn't real. >> if it's a positive approval rating, do you think he would accept it as legitimate?

the president has the lowest approval rating of any new president since we started taking polls regularly with harry truman. presidents don't live and die by the polls. polls go up and polls go down. this is a warning sign for the new president that he has not succeeded, if he wanted to, in reach og ut to people who did not vote for him and winning their support on these controversial issues. he continues to hold the support, by and large u of the people who did vote for him, he was elected not by a majority of the popular vote. this is a political challenge for him. i think we've seen him be pretty defined about what other presidents have tried to do, try to get more popular at the beginning when people might be inclined to cut you a break. >> errol, what did you make of the fact that the super bowl ads -- we know john was watching the game, i was watching the ads. everyone from 84 lumber to coca-cola, airbnb to the nfl inside these lines with the outline of america, took very

political stances. was this a message -- this was a message, the question is does the president listen? >> there are multiple messages coming from the culture, if you want to call it that, whether it's commercial culture, popular culture, "saturday night live." it's coming from a lot of different directions that he's got opposition he's got to deal with. if he doesn't want to believe the polls, doesn't want to believe the super bowl commercials, doesn't want to believe the crowds in the street, he's in for a real education. checks and balances are not just congress and the media and the courts. it's also the rest of us. it's the population. it's the culture. >> in order to move on. these people around him telling him the truth and telling him things going on around the country. there's new information this morning about the inner workings of the white house as well that we'll get to in a little bit. guys, thanks for being with us. really appreciate it. also let's talk more about these companies. almost 100 tech companies have joined this fight against the president's travel ban including apple, facebook, microsoft,

filing a court motion declaring the president's executive order, quote, violates immigration laws and the constitution. that will be up to the courts. christine romans our chief business correspondent is with us for more. this is a big deal, this friend of the court brief here. >> reporter: it is. these are a lot of companies. there are three companies, levi strauss, chobani and kind all three founded by immigrants, making sure they were on the motion to file, the friend of the court brief here. it's the biggest names in business, quite frankly, apple, its founder, his dad was a syrian immigrant. you look at facebook, microsoft, paypal, spotify, the list goes on and on. this is what hey say, the order represents a significant departure from the principles of fairness and predictability that have governed the immigration system of the u.s. for more than 50 years inflicting significant harm on american business, innovation and growth. ha is key, the word growth here. corporate america expects a pro

growth policy from president trump. instead, they get this immigration confusion, this immigration order here that they say does the opposite, that it deters from growth. these are also their employees, some of their companies have 100 employees could be caught up in the immigration ban. they say it's not good clarity for how america does its business. they say their customers, too -- these are international companies, these tech companies, it hurts their customers, their employees and the predictability of doing business in the united states. i'll say something interesting about this particular friend of the court brief. we've seen this before. the supreme court was considering same-sex marriage. companies came out and with one voice supported same-sex marriage for the fairness of employees and customers. it's relatively recent that you have companies weighing into issues like this. i think that the same-sex marriage case was the precedent here. >> christine romans, thank you

very much. john, you know what's interesting about it, the fact that these companies love the tax cuts coming and love the trade policies and they don't love this. they have to walk this line with the president and meet with him at the bhous. >> definitely sending two messages at once. on the one hand, you had that interview with ford, where they were gushing over the president. you have that on the one hand and this on the other. very different messages. still to come, president trump sticks up for vladimir putin and says america is not so innocent. backlash from both sides of the aisle. >> plus, an epic overtime win. is tom brady the greatest quarterback of all time? >> yes, yes, yes. >> the super bowl mvp speaks in moments. stay with us.

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new this morning, russia is asking for an apology from bill o'reilly for saying putin is a killer. >> do you respect putin? >> i do. >> why? >> i respect a lot of people. that doesn't mean i'm going to get along with him. he's a leader of his country: i say it's better to get along with russia than not. if russia helps us in the fight against isis which is a major fight, and islamic terrorism all over the world, major fight, that's a good thing. will i get along with him, i have no idea. >> he's a killer though. putin is a killer. >> we've got a lot of killers. you think our country is so innocent? >> not a lot of people, including republicans jumping to the president's defense on that

one. here to discuss, kournl peter monsieur, aide to general david petraeus and thomas pickering, a fellow from the brookings institution. colonel, let me begin with you. we know the president says he wants a better relationship with russia, wants russia to help this country fight isis. i'm just confounded at how putting the united states on equal ground when it comes to morals with russia and vladimir putin helps us do that. how do you see it? >> well, i see it like you do. putting the united states and russia on the same moral plane is simply misguided. in fact, putin regularly disappears, his political opposition, he suppressed the media in russia and governs with the iron fist. i know the president admires strong men and strong leaders, but this is simply going too

far. he needs to stand up for america as an exceptional nation that, yes, we make mistakes, but then we correct them through our political system unlike nations like russia. >> ambassador, isn't this the kind of language that put tin wants to hear? >> he does. i agree very much with colonel mansoor whose life and career i've always respected. the points he made are sound. we have a rule of law. of course we make mistakes. we make mistakes in war, we make mistakes in peace. the value of the united states is we have standards and we try, i hope, always to recognize those mistakes and correct them rather than the other way around. russia is a little more of an authoritarian system, if i could be diplomatic about it. i agree with president trump that we do have to get along with russia. you don't get a chance to choose

your enemies on these questions. it is in my view better to see if, in fact, you can work things out together despite the fact you have serious moral reservations about them and their actions. >> ambassador, what do we know about vladimir putin as a former kgb agent, as one who, as you noted, is alleged to have made some of his biggest political opponents disappear, allegations of poisoning, et cetera. does he operate well under flattery, meaning do you think the president's attempt at making putin work with the united states is misguided, or do you think this is the right way to go about it? >> i don't know whether he operates well under flattery. not all leaders develop certain egos. i think it is important, however, to note that flattery is not the source of what can be done. it's the ability to understand national interest and what those are and whether with russia we

can support national interest. colonel mansoor pointed out one that we do need to have -- or i guess president trump did, we need support from friends, allies and even enemies in dealing with isis which is a major problem for us, a major problem for russia. there are a number of things we've worked with russia on during the putin period under the obama administration. certainly we worked together on the iran agreement. we worked together in supporting the space station. we worked together in fighting terrorism. i wish we had more closely worked together on syria, but we tried. it isn't a total black-and-white question. as i said, the moral standing of the people you have to work with sometimes on the other side, as difficult as it is, is something you have to look at national interest to say whether, in fact, that's something we should do. i believe it's important to work with russia. russia and the united states have together a nuclear capacity

that clearly could destroy the planet if it gets out of here. we don't want accident, miscalculation, misjudgment or misunderstanding driving us in that particular direction. with mr. putin, you have to be tough as well as presenting him with the options you believe he should select on your diplomatic agenda as you go down this road, to settle these kinds of problems. >> colonel, i'm wondering what the view from inside the military might be of the statements that president trump made where he again said of the united states, with you think we don't kill, seeming to judge the actions of the united states over the past. when president obama went on a speaking tour of the middle east after he was elected and didn't apologize, republicans criticized him for it, calling it an apology tour. i'm not sure what this is by those standards. >> if you watch the full interview, he followed up that comment with a diatribe about

the iraq war. the military is going to follow the orders of the president of the united states. they'll appreciate the fact that he's promised to make the military stronger. but then again, there will be a settling in period, we can see with the raid in yemen, that the decision-making process of this administration isn't yet fully formed. i would think that the military's view of the president is a do-out. they'll certainly respect him as leader of the united states and commander-in-chief of the armed forces until his actions prove otherwise. >> colonel peter mansoor, ambassador pickering, thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> still to come for us, some republican lawmakers denouncing putin, calling him a thug and more. we will ask republican congressman ted yoho about the president's softer tone on russia.

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hello again everyone. i'm john berman. >> i'm poppy harlow. bottom of the hour. busy day for the president as he gets ready to visit u.s. central command in tampa and expected to visit troops while at macdill air force base. >> the intensifying legal battle over his ban. congressman ted yoho from florida is with us. thanks so much. >> appreciate you having me on, john and poppy. >> our first member of congress to be on for our debut show. >> so no talking points, congressman. >> none at all. >> your website says part of being a true conservative is believing in american exceptionalism and the ideals of

freedom and fairness. when you hear the president say we have a lot of killers, you think our country is so innocent, how do those comments about the united states jive with your concept of american exceptionalism. >> america is exceptional because of the way we were founded on our ideals, founding principles and core values and the constitution that holds that together. >> are we killers? >> obviously people have been killed that were unintended to be killed. how far do you want to dice this down. >> isn't the difference, congressman, for example, russia purposefully bombed in syria and killed civilians whereas the united states, there were air strikes where civilians were killed, but not purposefully. your colleague said democrats have not allegedly poisoned their republican opponents. >> i agree with you 100% on that comment, absolutely. things have happened. we have to take the

responsibility. it's like the hospital that got blown up that america did. we did that and it was unintentional, but still people died. you want to say did people get killed by the united states government? absolutely. that's happened in acts of war, if you go back to world war ii, i think over 70,000 people that were killed that were civilians in the bombing raids. >> this morning, congressman, there's new polling out on the president's approval ratings. cnn has it as 53% disapproval right now for president trump. he went on twitter this morning to comment about this. he said any negative polls are fake news. does that mean anything that isn't going his way is just false? >> president trump has a different personality and a different way people have to get used to. if you look at the football game last night, you would have thought tom brady and the new

england patriots were going to do terrible. >> except, congressman, the score was never false. the the atlanta falcons were really up by a lot. >> it wasn't. but the narrative was because people were signing off, saying there's no way new england can come back. you're judging a moment in time and you want to score him on this instead of looking back over four years and look back on how it came out. that's what i would encourage people to do. don't take it out of context at a moment in time. look at the stock market. you can't tell if the stock market is up or down by looking from day to day. but it's the trend. >> when the stock market hit 20,000, we on cnn and every news network ree ported the stock market hit 20,000. when people tell news networks that do this polling, this is how we think think the prpt is doing. >> today. >> the president says that's not actually how you people think. that doesn't scare you? >> it doesn't.

as john just said, today. that's what they think today. but if you don't -- >> he's saying there is no truth to what they, the people are saying they think. that's why i'm asking you, are you comfortable with that? >> yeah, i am. if you go back to what the poll said, hillary clinton was going to win. if you go back to when trump got elected, the stock market went up. everyone says it's the trump effect. then he said something and it dropped down. oh, trump is going to damage the economy. >> let me make a point. >> the trend. >> i hear you all the pundits and polls were totally wrong in the election. >> a little bit. >> the difference is those polls are asking who do you think will win, who will you vote for, not actually what you've done in this moment. that's what makes this polling very different from the polling, projecting what happened in the election. >> actually the exit polls said mrs. clinton was going to win, too. you have to look at how the poll

was done, was the poll skewed. we know polls can be skewed. we've seen that throughout our history. i want to encourage people, don't look at a point in time. look at the trend. >> congressman, i want to ask you about the travel ban right now which is being considered right now by the ninth circuit in california. president trump said that the judge there who put a pause on it, if something happens, blame him and the court system. do you think that's fair? >> again, you're going to have to -- people are going to have to get used to mr. trump's personality, the uniqueness, the way he delivers the message. i agree with the travel ban. i read the executive order and i stand 100% with that, how it's implemented, the whole purpose of this is to do an assessment of where we're add because we've had such a lax immigration policy and a refugee program. when i sit and talk to director comey of the fbi or the cia director and they tell us they can't vet these people coming in

from countries that don't have the proper way to vet and background check, when i know countries like venezuela is creating false passports allowing people from middle eastern countries and isis members to come into our country, i think president trump has the right to have an order to block people until we can vet them. this is a pause. it's not permanent. he has metrics in there to re-evaluate in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days so we can make sure the people coming into this country are people that are of good will and we're not going to have to worry about terrorism. >> you think this travel ban is 100% correct. the country is pretty evenly divided. what terror tactic can you point to in the united states by someone banned from coming to this country, either a refugee or immigrant from these seven nations? >> i can't point to one right

now. i can do this. the process the fbi is using -- if you look at the brothers in the boston bombing, we got information from european intelligence sources, russian intelligence sources to watch these people. the fbi dropped the ball on that. if you look at the person -- >> the question, congressman, is how does this ban fix that? what it doesn't include, as you know, are the four nations where the 9/11 came from. >> or the nations where the boston bombers came from. >> let's go to that. there was 19 people that came over for the 9/11 attack. one was a student visa. others came over on business and work visas. >> they weren't from these countries. >> i agree with that. but since then, the agreements we have with saudi arabia and the uae and egypt, our agreements with them on security before people come over here, we have a good background on those since that time. what we don't want to do is let people fall through the crack like they have done in belgium,

in paris, in germany and in england. we don't want that to happen. do you want to wait until an incident happens and say why didn't we do this? or do you want somebody that's proactive on national security which is the number one task of our federal government, is to provide for the common defense of our country. i would rather err on the side of caution. it's going to be a little inconvenient. this has happened in the past with other presidents. part of being president is make tough decisions and listen to the critics, the armchair quarterbacks that want to have a poll come out on a day an chastise somebody for doing what's right. we all should pull together as security for our country. that's not a republican or democratic issue. that's an american issue that goes back to exceptionalism of our country. >> when you say a little

inconvenient, i think that's an understatement. >> what about 9/11, was that inconvenient when 3,000 people got murdered. do you want to repeat that? >> that's why we're asking why those countries aren't included on this ban? congressman, appreciate you coming on. >> appreciate you having me on. still to come, the new england patriots with their fifth super bowl win. tom brady with his fourth super bowl mvp. i promise you, it never gets old, and we are waiting to hear from the quarterback.

a stunning comeback to say the least by the new england patriots. john is just beyond. >> i still don't believe the score. i still don't believe it. >> it is the first over time victory in super bowl history. >> we are waiting right now to hear from tom brady, frankly to look at tom brady, also patriots coach bill belichick. they'll speak any second live

from houston. cnn's coy wire, former the atlanta falcon joining us from houston. i know you were predicting an atlanta falcons blowout. here is the thing, you were right until all of a sudden you weren't. >> reporter: until all of a sudden i was not. the entire falcons nation weeped. the greatest comeback in super bowl history, maybe sports history. congrats to your pats. no team has ever come back in a super bowl being down more than ten points. the falcons were ahead by 25 at one point. this is the play of the game, julian edelman with what some are calling the greatest catch in super bowl history. the pats were down at this point 28-20 in the fourth. this play propelled the pats to a game tieing touchdown and two-point conversion. this is slow motion. this is not easy. he somehow hangs on this this thing.

they sent this game into the first ever over time in super bowl history. james white pummels his way in for the game winning score, an historic win over my former team, the falcons. i was on the field after the game. they felt like they were people on their sides in the wake of deflate-gate, people calling them the cheatriots. edelman with the incredible catch. caught up with him moments after the game. >> feel unbelievable. unbelievable win for our team, new england, our family, all of our families on the team. you've got to believe. >> got to believe is their mantra. one person who was especially emotional, record setting four-time super bowl mvp, five-time champion tom brady. you see him letting out emotion after the game. i caught up with roger goodell,

owner robert kraft and gronk on the field afterward to ask them about the greatest of all time, tom brady. first, here is tom. >> thank you to all our fans, everyone back in boston, new england, we love you. you've been with us all year. we're bringing this sucker home! >> just the biggest stage and he always steps up on the biggest stage and plays unbelievable. he did it again tonight, to bring that team back is unbelievable. >> i think what happened, the trauma in the first four games engaged fans even more, they know we weren't treated fairly. now we have a chance to go through the year and i think results speak for themselves. >> brady is the best ever, and belichick is, too. >> reporter: john, i know you're going to love this inside info. after the game i asked a coach in the locker room at half-time when the pats were down 21-3 what happened. he said belichick looked at every man in that locker room

and said 21 points will not be enough for the falcons to beat us. all the guys locked in and they believed. congrats to you and the patriots. what a wonderful day. >> i'm glad they believed him. i'm not sure everyone else in the country did. not sure i did. coy wire, great to see you, thanks so much. sorry it didn't work out. not that sorry. >> sorry but not sorry. still to come for us, switching gears. hope in the heart of trump country. we're going to take you deep inside to kentucky, beattyville, one of the poorest towns in the country betting everything on the president. ck... you've earned your medicare. it was a deal that was made long ago, and aarp believes it should be honored. thankfully, president trump does too. "i am going to protect and save your social security and your medicare. you made a deal a long time ago." now, it's congress' turn.

tell them to protect medicare.

now we want to bring you a story of hope in the heart of trump country. we're going to take you to a town in kentucky where president trump won 80% of the vote. why? jobs. many in this town have been without a job and without hope in decades. for the first time in a long time, they see that changing. >> i'm very hopeful that the jobs will come back because of

trump. >> i guess i'm most hopeful for opportunity and job growth. >> i'm hopeful that we will have jobs in kentucky. >> just to keep our young people here, give them a future. >> we have fresh meat in the white house. >> reporter: it's hard to find more natural beauty than the rolling hills in kentucky. >> i love area. >> it's beautiful here. >> reporter: to say folks here are proud of their town is an understatement. they're no fan of the recent headlines about it. this is beattiville, kentucky. one of the poorest predominantly white towns in the country. more than half of the people here live in poverty and rely on food stamps. less than a hundred miles from here is where president lyndon johnson declared the war on poverty. just over 50 years ago. >> this administration today, here and now, declares

unconditional war on poverty in america. >> reporter: but for decades, people here have struggled, more and more as their factories have shuttered and their coal mines have closed. now, though, there is a sense of hope that you can feel across this town, something many here have not felt for a long time. >> a lot of people are happy, some even ecstatic that we now can say "president trump." >> reporter: president trump won more than 80% of the vote here. >> everybody was excited. >> someone told me this morning that in eastern kentucky, the coal trucks are already out and about. >> reporter: donna kumer has been running this gas station for a decade and knows just about everyone in town. do you feel hopeful after the election? >> absolutely. he's already done more in a week than obama did in eight years. >> reporter: president trump? >> for the american people. >> reporter: i'm fascinated by

what gives people so much hope. what do you think it is? >> the change. the fact that i believe he wants to take care of us, the little people. and he understands us better. i think he's going to quit giving money to all these other countries and take care of america. >> reporter: but for melissa allen, hope is hard to find. do you make enough to get by? >> not without working seven days a week, no. i've lived here my entire life. i've lived in poverty my entire life. so there's really no hope. >> reporter: you're young, melissa. none? >> every week you've got to rob peter to pay paul. i had my electric shut off. i've had my water shut off. >> reporter: do you get a sense that people are more hopeful now because of the new president?

>> it seems like people are. but it's kind of almost like wishing on lost hope. because it's been this way for so long. >> reporter: her livelihood crumbled when one of the town's biggest employers shuttered, six years ago. >> i worked at lane apparel. >> reporter: the big factory. >> i worked there almost ten years. >> reporter: were you making a pretty good income there? >> i done decent there. one of the only decent paying jobs left. i was the highest paid employee on the sewing floor. >> reporter: but when the factory shuttered? >> i did too. i mean, honestly. >> reporter: now taking care of her 5-year-old son hayden, means two minimum wage jobs working up to 60 hours a week, and still relying on $100 in food stamps each month. >> i don't understand why minimum wage here can't be raised. i don't get that. >> reporter: more than 43 million americans are living at or below the poverty line.

in beattiville, the economic decline didn't come quickly. it's been a slow, painful drip of job losses for decades. so what happened? >> our industry went away. we were slow to realize that. we were the number one oil producing county east of the mississippi at one time. >> reporter: plenty of money here at one time. >> at one time we were the gem of eastern kentucky. i don't blame either party. i blame the system that creates the situation where everybody says everything is wonderful and it's not. >> reporter: chuck coddell runs the local paper here. the hope seems palpable. >> it is. simply because back here, you know, for the last few generations, we've been getting lots of promises. and there's been a lot of money thrown at the issues. >> reporter: help me understand so much hope is being placed in president trump. >> his bluntness, which is very

disquieting to people, ask is refreshing. >> reporter: but bluntness doesn't always equal jobs. >> it doesn't, but he out and out said i'm going to give you jobs. there's desperation here. >> reporter: susan lutz isn't convinced president trump will bring beattiville what it needs. >> he makes a lot of promises. he says a lot of things that sound great to some people who may not have as much insight into it as they could have or they should have. >> reporter: her concern? cutbacks in social programs here. >> those are resources that we need more of. we don't need to lose what we have. >> i don't think that trump has a clue about the little man.

you know, when you're born wealthy and everything's been handed to you, and you have everything in your world that's gold-plated, come to our world. come and see how we live. >> reporter: regardless of party, one constant you hear. something must be done so beattiville doesn't lose the next generation. >> we're losing our young people. they're having to leave after they graduate high school or graduate college. they're having to leave here. we need good paying jobs to keep 'em here. they don't expect to make a million dollars or something. this is my american dream, just to raise my family in a safe environment in a small town. that's what a lot of people here want. there's not a lot of opportunities for the children, no. >> it's difficult to bring jobs back in with the infrastructure we have, roads, internet connections. >> reporter: how much do you guys trust donald trump?

>> umm -- i don't know yet. i mean, really. you know, i have faith that he's going to work for the people. i have faith in that. >> reporter: married 22 years and parents to three daughters, harold and leandra faust share a modest home in the hills. >> we were the ones that fell through the cracks. in our world, you don't pay your bills this week. you pay a bill. you learn to live humbly. >> reporter: leandra is an artist. harold is a mason. he drives two hours each way to and from work, because the best paying job he could find close to home only paid $11 an hour. do you think most of america really understand -- >> no. >> reporter: -- what you live through? >> i think most of america is where we are and that's why the election went the way it did.

>> reporter: can donald trump help you? >> bring jobs here. the prison shut down. look at all the jobs they lost right there. >> reporter: what's trump's promise to you? what can he do for you? >> any change from what we've had. and you know what, i understand that obama has done great for some people. and i'll give him that. it didn't help us. it didn't help us at all. >> reporter: do you feel forgotten? >> sure. sure. i don't know why my kids have to work two jobs each. we don't want free college. we don't want everything free. we want to keep our sense of pride that we take care of ourselves. >> reporter: one day they would like their american dream. and their first vacation in a decade. >> he's said that since we've

been married. we'll go to the grand canyons one day. >> reporter: the day we landed in beattiville, the stock market hit a record high. but dow 20,000 doesn't help many folks here. >> for the majority of the people here, the stock market is something interesting to look at. >> reporter: it's factories like this one where melissa and hundreds more made a decent living, that president trump has promised to resurrect. it's a promise so many here are holding onto tightly. what gets you by every day? >> hayden. >> reporter: do you believe hayden can have a different life? >> i hope he does. i really do. like i said, i don't want him to struggle like i do. good morning, everyone, i'm john berman. >> i'm poppy harlow. so glad you're with us this morning. we begin with politics and